SF Crime Rates

The cluster debates crime levels in San Francisco, contrasting high property and petty crime rates with lower violent crime statistics, perceptions of safety, under-reporting, brazenness of crimes, and comparisons to other cities.

📉 Falling 0.1x Politics & Society
2,692
Comments
19
Years Active
5
Top Authors
#2259
Topic ID

Activity Over Time

2008
1
2009
13
2010
31
2011
16
2012
37
2013
93
2014
39
2015
34
2016
64
2017
75
2018
67
2019
135
2020
122
2021
452
2022
424
2023
815
2024
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2025
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2026
4

Keywords

HS NY US LOT TL sfchronicle.com e.g www.city data.com USC crime sf property cities violent crime san san francisco francisco crimes violent

Sample Comments

swalling May 31, 2023 View on HN

The actual data is that SF has unusually higher rates of property crime compared to other major cities. https://www.sfchronicle.com/projects/2022/fixing-san-francis...

aurareturn Apr 11, 2025 View on HN

For those in SF, does it feel like crime is down?

not2b Apr 13, 2023 View on HN

American cities almost all have far lower crime these days than they did decades ago, and SF has a significantly lower murder rate than many cities.https://www.cnn.com/2023/04/06/us/san-francisco-crime-bob-le...

jjulius Sep 6, 2022 View on HN

Crime can be down but still remain rampant. Your own link says that crime in SF is "higher than in 94.1% of US cities".

captainredbeard Jan 27, 2023 View on HN

Are you disputing the existence of widespread crimes in SF?

hattmall Sep 6, 2022 View on HN

Violent Crime IS low in SF. It's pushed into Oakland. Property crime is insane and artificially held low by apathy with regard to reporting and redefining offense levels.

MaxfordAndSons May 31, 2023 View on HN

It's an apples to oranges comparison - those cities may have worse problems with violent crime, but SF's issues with property/petty crime and drug use are off the charts.

olliej Apr 8, 2023 View on HN

Yes.People make a lot of noise about SF being a place where innovation happens, but criminals aren’t doing any of that.What you’re likely getting in SF is there being no meaningful gap between the rich areas of SF and the poor. In larger cities you aren’t going to get hyperventilating about “person driving through [high crime neighborhood] was car jacked” but you would if it was [rich low crime neighbourhood] - but the general case means that the majority of such crimes don’t get TV covera

ulfw Aug 28, 2021 View on HN

Obviously the latter. Have you read the rest of the article?"Before covid-19 San Francisco was the car-break-in capital of America; but with fewer tourists, criminals have shifted their attention. Home burglaries are up. Shootings have more than doubled in the past year. Viral videos show daytime heists, with perpetrators sauntering out of stores without consequence. Lax enforcement of drug laws can become fatal when even small amounts can kill."

crassus Feb 18, 2014 View on HN

The unsafeness isn't just perception. I see friends becoming victims of violent crime and property crime in Oakland/SF on Facebook fairly regularly, and I don't have that many city friends. The cities are too progressive to seriously address their crime problem. Someone needs to call Giuliani.